UK Interview with John McCain

[T_i_B]

Who's busy plugging David Cameron and the British Conservative party.

http://www.newstatesman.com/200610020030

It was in late August that David Cameron telephoned the American Republican senator John McCain and invited him to be the star turn at the Conservative party conference. McCain, whom the polls put neck and neck with the Democrat Hillary Clinton as favourite to be the next president of the United States, had met a Conservative delegation earlier in the year. "It was just a general gathering: 'Hi, how are you' - no strategy, no tactics," he says.

When I speak to Senator McCain a month after Cameron's call, he has not yet written his speech, but the themes are likely to be familiar to McCain watchers. He describes himself as a Reaganite, "big tent" conservative. His political positions owe less to party discipline than to private conscience. "I try to do what is right," he says. His votes of conscience have in the past set him against fellow Republicans, George W Bush in particular. The president became increasingly irritated by McCain's mission to reform the financing of political campaigns - particularly as he has done rather well out of big donors. He also resented McCain's support for the Kyoto treaty and his concern for the environment.

McCain does not know David Cameron well, but tells me he is impressed by him for "the way he has reinvigorated the Conservative Party and the youth movement in a Conservative vision for the future. I admire his enthusiasm and the way he is ubiquitous. It is a wonderful thing to see this youth." I ask him if, as a presidential candidate turning 70, he minds the cult of youth. "Reagan turned this to an asset," he reminds me.

McCain has also met Gordon Brown. Were he to become president, who would he be more comfortable dealing with - Cameron or Brown? He says tactfully: "Whoever is president of the United States and whoever is the British prime minister, the unique relationship between the countries will remain." But he does also say: "As a conservative Republican, I encourage Republicanism round the globe."

[LeftishBrit]

1. 'Republicanism round the globe'???

'Republican' doesn't mean 'right-wing' in most countries. In the UK, 'Republican' means someone who wants the Monarchy to be abolished; or, in some contexts, someone who wants Northern Ireland to join the Republic of Ireland instead of being part of the UK. It doesn't mean Conservative!

Or does he mean that every country on the globe should become a colony of Mad King George?